We explore the differences in the use and re-use of form and function aspects of technologies. Technological evolution and product life-cycle models detail the processes of introduction, competition, and growth, and eventually decline as new technologies are introduced and displace older models. These models have primarily described the functional components as the dominant driver in the selection mechanism. We present the argument that design-based inventions, in particular, can exhibit some level of re-emergence as consumers’ acceptance of design styles may cycle in such a manner to desire products, features, and form factors found in older technologies. These design preferences can change separate from the technical functionality, resulting in technologies seemingly evolving in one dimension but re-emerging or being reused in another, even after new dominant designs have been selected. We test this using design patents representing the way an invention looks through industrial design as compared to utility patents covering an invention’s function. We find that design-based inventions have a higher variance of backward re-use and are more likely to re-emerge even after a period of decline.
